Gov. Christie declares state of emergency in N.J. following October snowstorm

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Not even nature was prepared for this.

A historic early season nor’easter clobbered New Jersey today, snapping forests worth of trees, leaving hundreds of thousands without power, causing dozens of traffic accidents and even breaking at least one snowfall record in the latest bout of the state’s recent run of wild weather.

But even with all the Garden State has been through in the past four months — record heat, a once-in-a-1,000-year rain event and an earthquake — not even the trees were primed for a major snowstorm in October.

“We went from a hurricane to earthquakes to a blizzard,” said Randy Blumenthal, 28, of Morristown. “It’s too early. I’m not ready for it yet.”

Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency this evening and used the social networking site Twitter to warn state residents to stay home and keep them updated about the storm throughout the evening.

“This is more snow than we were expecting,” Christie said in a televised update just before 8 p.m. “We are ready, we are moving, salting and sanding the roads. The problem is you cannot get the trees off the road fast enough. That’s the biggest problem. We have 25 state roads that are completely closed and more than 60 that are partially closed.”

“We are out there plowing, salting sanding and trying to get power crews out there to get power restored quickly,” Christie said on radio station New Jersey 101.5. “The bottom line message, it’s dangerous, we’re in a state of emergency, so stay off the roads unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

Nearly a foot of snow had fallen in parts of New Jersey by nightfall, piling on still leafy trees across the state like a wet blanket. Residents in northern New Jersey — hit hardest by the freak storm — said it sounded like gunshots or firecrackers around their homes as the trees buckled under the weight of the snow, which typically arrives long after their foliage has fallen to the ground.

Marie Stopfer lost power in her West Orange home around 2 p.m. when tree limbs fell on power lines on her street.

“It sounded like glaciers caving in all around me,” Stopfer said.

By 7 p.m., at least 600,000 customers had lost power in the state, mainly due to falling tree limbs or the weight of snow weighing down power lines.

Utility companies PSE&G and Jersey Central Power & Light said they expected outage totals to rise through the night as the storm pulled out.

PSE&G said customers should prepare for “potentially lengthy outages” and JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano said the company had all of its available staff responding, and even brought crews in from Ohio to help lighten the load.

“We’ll offer an estimated time for restoration (Sunday), but it’s too early to say,” Morano said.

Officials from the State Police and Department of Transportation reported dozens of accidents on roadways as conditions deteriorated, and local government offices like Essex County, Bernardsville and Morristown declared states of emergency as graveyards of downed trees and power lines made roads impassable.

“In our West Essex area, we have a large tree down with live wires,” said Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura. “On South Orange Avenue in Maplewood (and) Millburn, that’s a total mess. A large tree fell across the road eastbound and a large tree came across the road westbound and you’ve got families stuck in between.”

Bernardsville Mayor Lee Honecker said he was urging people to stay home.

“I’ve never seen it like this before,” Honecker said. “We have trees blocking all our major roads.

NJ Transit train service was severely affected, with the Morris & Essex, Gladstone and Montclair lines all suspended last night, the agency’s website said.

The Northeast Corridor & North Jersey Coast lines faced delays of about 30 minutes out of New York’s Penn Station.

Other lines also were hampered by the storm, with trains either canceled or delayed. Flights coming in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport also experienced delays.
Because of the rare confluence of events and a long period of unseasonably warm temperatures recently, the storm confounded forecasters at the National Weather Service and elsewhere throughout the week, some of whom were skeptical — as recently as Thursday — that places like Newark would receive any snow at all.

First snow of the season brings mixed reactions from New Jersey residents A blanket of wet heavy snow covered areas throughout central and Northern New Jersey. In Clinton, snow started to stick to some surfaces during the early afternoon including power lines and tree limbs. There is concern there may be widespread power outages and felled trees throughout the region. Hunterdon, Sussex, Morris, Warren and Somerset counties all reported slippery roads causing dangerous road conditions. (Video by Andre Malok / The Star-Ledger)

When it arrived, it came sooner and hit harder than expected, dumping a foot or more in parts of Hunterdon, Passaic, Sussex and Morris counties, according to the National Weather Service. The totals are likely to set records for many, particularly in places like Essex, Union and Middlesex counties, where measurable snow falls only a few times a century.

Before the storm ended last night, 4.6 inches of snow had fallen in Newark; 7.5 in Verona; 4.8 in Roselle Park; 4.3 in Edison; and 10.5 in Long Valley.

The highly unusual storm was caused by a series of events that fell into place at the perfect time to make a mess, forecasters said.

SNOWFALL TOTALS:

Sparta: 16.2 inches

West Milford: 15.5 inches

Rockaway: 15.5 inches

Randolph: 14.5 inches

Wantage: 14 inches

Long Valley 10.5 inches

Lebanon: 10 inches

Stewartsville: 8.1 inches

Verona: 7.5 inches

Hopewell: 6.5 inches

Whitehouse Station: 6.5 inches

Bloomfield 6.3 inches

Woodbridge: 5.3 inches

West Orange: 5.2 inches

Bridgewater: 4.8 inches

Roselle Park: 4.8 inches

Newark: 4.6 inches

Morristown 4.6 inches

Elizabeth: 3.4 inches
*As of 10 p.m. today

Source: National Weather Service

A large and deep high pressure system sliced cold air into the region Friday and today, dropping temperatures into the 30s and 40s in advance of the storm.

Simultaneously, a storm system developed off the coast of North Carolina and strengthened rapidly as it moved up the Eastern Seaboard last night.

The intensity of the precipitation falling today actually allowed snow to fall, despite the fact that temperatures were above freezing in many places. In a phenomenon called “dynamic cooling,” heavy rain dragged down colder air from the upper atmosphere. That allowed precipitation to freeze and fall as snow.

Those ingredients, mixed well, allowed for one of the worst October snowstorms in New Jersey history.

By last night, West Milford in Passaic County had already eclipsed the state’s all-time monthly snowfall record for October, the weather service said. The Passaic County town had 15 inches on the ground, and more still coming, edging out the 14 inches that fell in High Point, Sussex County, on Oct. 28, 2008.

“It is a very uncommon thing to see snowfall like this this early, especially in these amounts,” said Accuweather.com senior meteorologist Alan Reppert. “New York City, for example, hasn’t seen a snowstorm (in October) with an inch or more of snow since records have been kept.” Those records date to the 1800s.

Fortunately, New Jersey likely won’t have to deal with its wintry weather for long. Sunny skies and high temperatures in the 40s and 50s are expected statewide Sunday and Monday, which should help to melt most of the snow.

“(Sunday) this will all go away and it’ll be like nothing happened,” Fontoura said.